SHANNON WHEELER
Shannon Wheeler does comic strips on The Onion & The New Yorker. Dark Horse Comics (Hellboy) published 5 of His graphic novels too.
SHANNON WHEELER: "Too Much Coffee Man is about evil corporations, coffeeshop lifestyle, consumerism, depression, alienation and the boredoms of every day life."
[words & interview.Aldy Kusumah / photos by Amanda Thorson]
We can see Shannon Wheeler comic strips on The Onion & The New Yorker. Dark Horse Comics (Hellboy) published 5 of His graphic novels too. For those who doesn’t know Him, Shannon Wheeler is the driving force behind the genius and abstract social commentary about monotonous human life: Too Much Coffee Man. TMCM is not a superhero, just another ordinary dweeb trapped in the clutches of evil corporations, coffeeshop lifestyle, consumerism, depression, alienation and the boredoms of every day life. In other words, TMCM is ALL OF US. Here’s my interview with the artist himself, behind creative works such as TMCM, Screw Heaven & How To Be Happy. Enjoy!
A: i see TMCM as sort of a social commentary on the decaying moralities in this internet-age and coffeeshop revolutionaries. What is your “spark” when you first created TMCM?
S: The first Too Much Coffee Man gag was about people sitting around coffee shops not doing anything - the punchline was TMCM realizing that he was sitting around coffee shops doing nothing too.
A: Your spin-off about a comic book writer who writes comics about TMCM is brilliantly funny. i think making comics about people making comics is brilliant. is that comic book artist your real-life persona?
S: The Cartoonist character is definitely an aspect of me. I’ve always felt like a bull in a china shop when I’m drawing. When I was drawing those first comic books I thought of the TMCM story, the cartoonist, and the relationship stories were all part of a single story line. Each issue had a theme - like love or death. Obviously the themes are less obvious in the graphic novel.
A: What’s on your current iTunes playlist these days?
S: I’m going through another Tom Waits run…. lots of Waits.
A: Favourite comics/books of all-time?
S: Just reread Cowboy Wally and I still love it. The Fab Furry Freak Bros. always make me laugh.
A: Your influences and comic-artist you admire?
S: For some reason my mom had the Freak Brother comics around when I was a kid. I was reading Marvel comics and Garfield until I stumbled on Gilbert’s work - it totally corrupted me.
A: What if “they” decided to buy TMCM and make it into a movie? who’s the director that fits your category to transform TMCM into celluloid?
S: The Coen Brothers can do anything. They’d be great - a Raising Arizona TMCM.
A: What’s your next projects?
S: I’m working on doing the opera again this Summer. Just finishing up a book of gag cartoons called “I Thought You Would be Funnier.” I have a kid’s book called “Grandpa Won’t Wake Up”… a couple other things almost ready to announce.
A: Gimme yer last words for struggling artist/writers.. haha
S: Last words… hmmmm…. There’s a fine line between sayings that make sense.
